News: July 2000

Meet The Composer Awards Commissioning Music/USA Grants to 26 Composers

David Baker

David Baker · Bloomington, IN
Top Brass/The Brass Chamber Music
Foundation · Xenia, OH

Noted composer, conductor, musical director, music educator and jazz musician David Baker will write a multi-movement chamber piece based on the work of Ohio poet Paul Laurence Dunbar. A performance of this piece will be webcast live from the campus of Antioch University as part of the groundbreaking topbrassmusic.com series of new music concerts on the Internet. The webcast involves an innovative partnership with Clover Technologies. A residency/educational program will accompany the commission. The piece will be premiered by Top Brass in September 2000. Since the group's inception in 1979, Top Brass has placed a special emphasis on commissioning and premiering new works by established and emerging composers. The ensemble presents educational clinics and concerts at public schools, colleges and universities.

David Carlson · San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Saxophone Quartet · San Francisco, CA

Renowned for his chamber and orchestral works as well as his contemporary operas, David Carlson will create a 20-minute quartet in four movements for the San Francisco Saxophone Quartet. The piece will premiere in August 2000. Subsequent performances include a free concert at San Francisco's Community Music Center and possible inclusion in the summer 2000 World Saxophone Congress in Montreal. Unique among saxophone ensembles, the San Francisco Saxophone Quartet performs much of its repertoire from memory, including baroque transcriptions, works with keyboard, original saxophone quartets, and jazz arrangements. The ensemble is equally at home on the concert stage or on the streets of San Francisco.

Mario Davidovsky

Mario Davidovsky · Boston, MA
Ensemble 21 · New York, NY

Pulitzer Prize-winner Mario Davidovsky, who is perhaps best known for his groundbreaking Synchronisms series for live performers and electronics, will create a quartet for piano soloist and string trio (violin, viola, and cello) as a solo vehicle for Ensemble 21's pianist, Marilyn Nonken. The work will premiere in November 2000. Since its founding in 1993, Ensemble 21's programs have explored the late 20th- and early 21st-century repertoire, focusing mainly on American music. The ensemble performs at the Miller Theatre in New York.

William Ferris

William Ferris · Chicago, IL
CUBE · Chicago, IL

Eminent Chicago composer and choral conductor William Ferris, who died unexpectedly on May 16, 2000, has written a work entitled Eden Garden, based on a text from the books of Genesis and Job and the writings of St. Patrick. The 15-minute piece is scored for solo baritone, two flutes (doubling alto flute and piccolo), oboe (doubling English horn), clarinet, cello, percussion, and piano. Eden Garden premiered on May 22, 2000, as a memorial to Mr. Ferris, with baritone Dan McDaniel under the baton of Philip Morehead. CUBE specializes in contemporary chamber music for winds, piano and percussion. Its purpose is to present chamber works considered to be on the cutting edge of 20th-century music, including the most recent works of contemporary American composers, as well as "classic" and avant garde works of contemporary composers in Europe, South America and Asia.

Anthony Gatto · Minneapolis, MN
Bakken Trio · Minneapolis, MN

Anthony Gatto is the Director of Headwaters Music, a non-profit organization founded in 1990 to present new music of all styles and ideas, as well as an instructor of music at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Mr. Gatto will create a piano trio, 12 to 15 minutes in duration, for the Bakken Trio. The work will be premiered in spring 2001. The composer will be featured in pre-concert discussions accompanying performances. Celebrating its 10th Anniversary, the Bakken Trio is committed to expanding the traditional piano trio repertoire by commissioning new works each season and annually gives several free concerts in a variety of cities in Minnesota.

Slide Hampton

Slide Hampton · East Orange, NJ
Sixteen as One Music, Inc. · New York, NY

Master composer/arranger/trombonist Slide Hampton will create a jazz orchestra piece for the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. The work, scored for five saxophones, four trumpets, four trombones, piano, bass and drums, will be premiered in fall 2000 and will be 15 to 18 minutes in duration. Slide Hampton developed his talents as a composer and arranger by working with bands led by Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey, Barry Harris, Max Roach, Maynard Ferguson, Thad Jones and Mel Lewis. His 1998 Grammy Award-winning arrangement of Duke Ellington's Cottontail is among the outstanding contributions Mr. Hampton has made to jazz music. The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra was established by Thad Jones and Mel Lewis in 1966 at The Village Vanguard and is still in residence there every Monday night.

Nona Hendryx Photo by Rik Walton

Nona Hendryx · New York, NY
651 ARTS · Brooklyn, NY

Cutting-edge composer and pop/rock performer Nona Hendryx will build upon the material of her SkinDiver theme album to create a two-hour, multimedia music-theater piece. SkinDiver revolves around three intersecting journeys: a person of color's journey to find a place of comfort, a woman's journey to find acceptance, and an artist's journey to find expression. The work will feature a live, eight-piece musical ensemble (drums, guitar, bass, synthesizer, piano, cello, viola, and violin), three to four vocalists, a community choir of adults and children, plus real-time interactive video, spoken word, movement, lighting effects, and costumes. The production will bring together a full creative team including Charles Randolph-Wright as co-scriptwriter and stage director, and Blondell Cummings as choreographer. SkinDiver is slated to premiere at 651 Arts in January 2002. 651 Arts is Brooklyn's premier African-American arts presenter and the only arts presenter in the borough that regularly offers African-American contemporary dance and jazz programming. Its mission is to develop, produce and present arts and cultural programming founded in the African Diaspora, with a primary focus in contemporary performing arts.

Andrew Imbrie

Andrew Imbrie · Berkeley, CA;
Hi Kyung Kim · Santa Cruz, CA
Chamber Music Society of Minnesota · Minneapolis, MN

A special historical project entitled "Remembrance and Reconciliation" was created by the Chamber Music Society of Minnesota and cellist Yo-Yo Ma in the hopes of fostering remembrance and reconciliation, through music, among the Asian Pacific countries involved in World War II. One composer native to each Asian country and one American-born composer have been invited to create 15- to 20-minute works for this singular project with Mr. Ma to perform with each ensemble. American-born Andrew Imbrie will compose a work for two-cello string quintet, flute, clarinet, oboe, percussion and bassoon, and Korean-born Hi Kyung Kim will write a piece for violin, viola, cello, flute, clarinet, and percussion. The two additional composers representing Japan and China will compose a string quintet and a work for violin, cello, Chinese pipa and voice, respectively. The works will be premiered jointly in May 2001 at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in St. Paul, with touring performances to follow in Tokyo, Beijing, Nanjing, Seoul and throughout the US, including the Pacific Rim Festival of Contemporary Music in Santa Cruz CA.

Daniel Kellogg

Daniel Kellogg · New Haven, CT
eighth blackbird · Cincinnati, OH

Daniel Kellogg will write a 25-minute work for the eighth blackbird ensemble of flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, and percussion. The composer intends to base the piece on the 13th-century plainchant Divinum Mysterium or "of the Father's love begotten." The work will be in five movements with an introduction to incorporate off-stage singing of the plainchant tune. A premiere is planned for fall 2000. Taking its name from the Wallace Stevens poem "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird," eighth blackbird was the first contemporary ensemble ever to win First Prize at the Concert Artists Guild International Competition. Acclaimed by The New York Times as "a superb music sextet," the ensemble has performed on chamber music series and in festivals throughout the United States.

Barbara Kolb

Barbara Kolb · New York, NY
Festival Ballet · North Providence, RI

Barbara Kolb will compose an abstract, 15-minute work for seven to 10 musicians in collaboration with choreographer Misha Djuric, Artistic Director of the Festival Ballet. Attracted to the powerful emotional aspect of Ms. Kolb's work, Mr. Djuric created a dance piece to her composition entitled Extremes and will now make the logical progression to a true collaboration of artists with the creation of this new work. The original dance piece will premiere in spring 2003 and will then become a permanent addition to the Festival Ballet repertoire. Founded in 1978, the Festival Ballet offers Rhode Island audiences professional dance performances, as well as outreach programs.

Penka Kouneva

Penka Kouneva · North Hollywood, CA
Da Capo Chamber Players · New York, NY

Penka Kouneva, a postmodern composer who has written works for the concert stage, film and television, will create a 15- to 18-minute quintet for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano as part of the Da Capo Players' 30th Anniversary commissioning project. The composer will participate in school workshops and other outreach programs in conjunction with the commission. The work will receive its premiere in spring 2001. Since its founding in 1970, the Da Capo Players has established itself as one of the foremost new music groups in the United States. The ensemble is a leader in building a strong heritage of present-day American chamber music. More than 70 chamber music works have been written for them by a distinguished roster of composers. The group makes regular tours throughout the United States and performs an annual concert series in New York.

Steve Mackey

Steven Mackey · Princeton, NJ
New Sounds Music, Inc. · Philadelphia, PA

Steven Mackey will bring his noted fusion of popular music idioms, jazz, and contemporary classical composition to the creation of a 20-minute saxophone work for the PRISM Quartet. In addition to concert performances, the work will be featured in outreach performances as part of PRISM's Philadelphia Residency Program benefitting music students, including those with special needs, and the general public. The work will premiere during the PRISM Quartet's 2001-2002 season. Founded in 1984, PRISM has served as Ensemble-in-Residence for California's New Sounds Music Festival, created as a forum for PRISM to develop saxophone quartet repertoire and explore the artistic and technological parameters of electronic wind instruments. Since 1994, PRISM has served as the Artists-in-Residence at the Settlement Music School and the Free Library of Philadelphia, under whose auspices the group has been presented in over 100 outreach performances throughout Greater Philadelphia. In the 1997-98 season, PRISM initiated its own contemporary music concert series in both New York City and Philadelphia.

Eric Moe

Eric Moe · Pittsburgh, PA;
Wayne Peterson · San Francisco, CA
The Composers Guild of New Jersey · Wayne, NJ

Eric Moe and Wayne Peterson will each compose a solo work of 10 to 15 minutes for performance by pianist David Holzman. The works will be written for spring 2001 premieres at The African Art Museum of the SMA Fathers in Tenafly, NJ. To complement the ambience of the Museum where a special exhibit of artwork from Mali entitled Myths, Totems and Enchanted Lizards: Bamana Door Locks from the Collection of Dr. Pascal James and Eleanor Imperato will be on display both works will be highly atmospheric, with Mr. Moe's composition drawing upon African musical traditions.

Terry Riley Photo by Betty Freeman

Terry Riley · Camptonville, CA
Musical Traditions/Paul Dresher Ensemble · San Francisco, CA
Krannert Center for the Performing Arts · Urbana, IL
Emory University Department of Music · Atlanta, GA

Pioneering composer Terry Riley, one of the founders of the Minimalist movement in music, will create a piano concerto for the Paul Dresher Ensemble's six-member Electro-Acoustic Band. Informed by Mr. Riley's immersion in North Indian classical music as a vocal/instrumental performer and teacher, the 30-minute work will be developed through workshops in which the composer will have an opportunity to explore both the technical/electronic and improvisational resources of the Ensemble. The piece will premiere in November 2000. Musical Traditions/Paul Dresher Ensemble is a contemporary performing ensemble which has two main facets. One, to produce and tour its own works of collaboratively created opera and experimental music theater, and two, to perform as the Electro-Acoustic Band the works of a diverse range of contemporary composers on an instrumentation which combines traditional acoustic and contemporary electronic instruments.

Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez

Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez · San Francisco, CA
Chanticleer · San Francisco, CA

Widely lauded, Mexican-born multimedia composer Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez will create a nine- to 12-minute vocal work exploring two important and interrelated themes in the history of California and the U.S. as a whole: the California Gold Rush of the mid-19th century and the concurrent Barbary Coast period in San Francisco. The work will incorporate period texts from a variety of cultural perspectives. It will premiere during Chanticleer's 2000-2001 US tour and will find a wider audience with inclusion in an upcoming compact disc featuring works by American composers. Founded in 1978, Chanticleer has developed a remarkable reputation for the expansive breadth of its vocal repertoire. The 12-man ensemble gives more than 100 concerts each year in the United States, Europe and Asia and has an exclusive recording contract with Teldec Classics International.

Oliver Schneller

Oliver Schneller · Jersey City, NJ
Elm City Ensemble · New Haven, CT

Oliver Schneller, a doctoral student at Columbia University, has received several awards for his compositions, including the Paul Fromm Award from the Tanglewood Music Center in 1999. Mr. Schneller will write a piece for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano for performance by the Elm City Ensemble. The single-movement piece will be eight- to 10-minutes in length, and will be performed as part of an outreach program through Young Audiences of Connecticut. Recently mentioned in Chamber Music magazine as one of America's top ten leading young chamber ensembles, the Elm City Ensemble is dedicated to the commissioning and promotion of new works as well as understanding the value and importance of reaching out to younger audiences.

Malachi Thompson

Malachi Thompson · Chicago, IL
Sutherland Community Arts Initiative · Chicago, IL

Renowned jazz innovator Malachi Thompson, a composer/band leader/trumpet soloist/educator/historian/arts activist, will create four new works representing the direction jazz will take in the new millennium. The commission will pay tribute to the crucial role of musicians and ensembles that flourished in Chicago's South Side jazz haven. The works will be performed by Mr. Thompson's Freebop Band with a premiere at the Sutherland Community Arts Initiative's eighth annual Hyde Park/Kenwood JAAZ Festival in October 2000.

Olly Wilson

Olly Wilson · Berkeley, CA
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra · New York, NY

An acclaimed composer with expertise in the classical, jazz, electronic, and West African musical genres, Olly Wilson will create a concert overture of 12 to 15 minutes in length. Written for the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra's instrumentation of full strings, double woodwinds (flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and French horn), trumpets, and tympani, the work will be performed at Carnegie Hall in February 2002. Founded in 1972, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, which performs without a conductor, is built upon the chamber music principles of individual participation, collaboration and self-governance. The ensemble's extensive tours have taken them to over 400 cities throughout the world, and they have recorded over 50 disks for Deutsche Grammophon, Nonesuch and BMG.

Charles Wuorinen

Charles Wuorinen · New York, NY
Modernworks! · New York, NY

Addressing the scarcity of American works for classical accordion, distinguished composer Charles Wuorinen will create a work for cello and accordion to be performed by ModernWorks! cellist Madeleine Shapiro and Modernworks! accordionist Mikko Luoma. The piece will be 10 to 15 minutes in length and is slated to premiere in spring 2001 at New York University's Black Box Theater in conjunction with a residency for the ensemble. Formed in 1997, ModernWorks!' mission is to explore the repertoire written for strings in a variety of combinations, including works for string quartet, multiple celli, string duos and trios, guitar and harp, as well as works scored predominantly for strings and standard orchestral and unusual or indigenous instruments.

Chen Yi Photo by Jim Hair

Chen Yi · Kansas City, MO
Network for New Music · Philadelphia, PA

Trained in both her native China and in America, internationally renowned classical composer Chen Yi has received a long list of commissions from leading organizations and soloists around the world. She will create a new work for clarinet, saxophone, bassoon, piano, and percussion of 12 to 15 minutes duration. The piece will receive its premiere in November 2001. The Network for New Music Ensemble is composed of a core group of musicians from The Philadelphia Orchestra and faculties of area universities who are dedicated to the interpretation and performance of contemporary music. Since 1984, they have produced, presented or commissioned more than 400 new works.

Inessa Zaretsky · New York, NY
Summertrios, Inc. · Bala Cynwyd, PA

Russian-born composer/pianist Inessa Zaretsky, a former child prodigy with extensive performing credits, will compose a 17- to 20-minute suite consisting of 4 to 6 movements for piano trio (piano, violin, and cello). Chamber music camp programs involving both professional musicians and adult amateurs will accompany the new work's genesis. The piece will be premiered at the Summertrios 2000 festivals. Summertrios was formed in 1990 to provide playing, performance, educational, listening and networking opportunities for adult amateur and professional musicians, as well as general audiences. Their main activity is running chamber music camps and workshops.

Evan Ziporyn Photo by Robin Holland courtesy Bang On A Can

Evan Ziporyn · Sommerville, MA
Sun Valley Center for the Arts and Humanities · Sun Valley, ID
Catamount Arts · St. Johnsbury, VT
Rhinebeck Chamber Music Society · Rhinebeck, NY

An expert on the Balinese gamelan and innovative composer for combined ensembles of gamelan and western instruments, Evan Ziporyn will create a 20-minute multi-movement work for string trio. With a trio of sponsors from Northern New England to the Far West, the work will receive its premiere by the Arden Trio. Winners of the 1981 Concert Artists Guild Award, the Arden Trio is strongly committed to community based educational projects that extend beyond the traditional concert experience. To that end, the trio has developed a wide range of engaging and informative presentations that have won the endorsement of chamber music organizations throughout the United States, including the 92nd Street Y in New York and the Sun Valley Center for the Arts and Humanities in Idaho.